Good afternoon, comics fans! Welcome to another edition of RVA Comics X-Change, your biweekly go-to spot for comics and pop culture. This week, instead of getting you the best recommendations for the next two weeks, we decided to make a pit stop at VA Comicon, which took place last weekend, and give you the lowdown on what you missed.

Housed at the Richmond Raceway, the 2018 VA Comicon was on the smaller scale, but still proved to be a popular hub for Richmond’s comic community and casual fans alike. As cosplayers walked around the center, various vendors were set up. They ranged from casual fans selling their collections to genre writers; there was even a table set up for Breakout, an escape-room franchise in Midlothian.

Fellow RVA Mag writer John Donegan was kind enough to help me maneuver our way around the arena full of people (and even got himself 3D-printed). With so much happening all around, we had to stop a few people and ask what was going on.

Katie and Richard, aka Team Rocket

Meet Richard and Katie, your friendly neighborhood Team Rocket cosplayers. Neither of them had ever been to a comic convention before, but upon learning that there was one nearby, they decided they had to investigate. Understandably, they had a lot of requests for pictures as they walked the floor.

“I’m surprised, I didn’t expect so many people to talk to us,” said Katie. “I’m enjoying the attention,” added Richard.

Aubrey Sitterson

Among the professionals in attendance was comic writer Aubrey Sitterson, who wrote The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling. Sitterson is actually a Richmond native, but he currently lives in Los Angeles. With such powerhouses on his resume as Marvel, DC, and IDW Publishing, I was sure he does conventions on the West Coast all the time.

Any difference between East and West Coast cons?

“It’s a lot colder here, man,” said Sitterson. “I don’t see too much of a difference. The neat thing about comic book conventions is that there are about a dozen different ways to do Comic Con. There are people who do cosplay and take pictures, people who check out comic books — my favorite people. I like that there is such a huge variety of stuff to do for people.”

Rod Van Blake

Sci-Fi novelists were certainly in attendance, and we had the joy of meeting with author Rod Van Blake at his table. Van Blake is currently working on the third novel in his series, Ancient Illumination. He’d come to VA Comicon to talk to fans about his novels — and sell a few, too. Van Blake lives in the area and mostly tries to stay relatively local, going as far as Baltimore Comic-Con or Awesome Con in DC. This makes selling the novels easier, and, he joked, makes it so he doesn’t have to lug around a hundred books at a time.

How is being a vendor at a convention different than being a passing fan? A little bit, he remarked.

“It’s a lot more leisurely when you’re just walking around looking at stuff,” said Van Blake. “I tend not to sit down as a vendor, because I like to engage people as they come by and tell them about the book. I still get to meet a lot of nice people and see the crazy costumes as they walk by.”

Kate DeNeveu and David Murray of Telegraph Comics

Naturally, even a few comic shops were in representation. Charlottesville’s Telegraph Comics made an appearance, albeit without any comics to sell, instead bringing posters and other paraphernalia. They thought smart; realizing everyone else would be bringing the comics, they decided to bring the easier-to-carry things.

“We’ve been wanting to try out smaller, more local shows,” said one of the owners, Kate DeNeveu. “There’s always an enthusiastic crowd.”

And of course, just to round it out, there was also a wrestler in attendance. Wrestler Dynamite Diva was undeniably more excited than anyone else to be there.

Dynamite Diva

“This is my first comic-con; I got an invite, and wanted to see what it was all about,” said Dynamite. “I have one of these crazy characters that kind of blends right in, so I actually blend somewhere.”

The wrestler herself couldn’t name every costume she saw at the convention, but she recognized a few. “My son gets me into all of this anime stuff because he has me at home watching it,” she said. “He would probably be able to say all of them right off. ”

And so another successful VA Comicon comes to a close. Did we see you? Any favorite costumes?

Your recommendation for this issue, as we head into November, is to keep your eyes peeled for the Avengers: Infinity War 4 trailer that is to be released this upcoming month. What are you looking forward to with the new trailer? Any theories?

Afternoon, comic fans! Welcome on back to issue #3 of RVA Magzine’s Comic X-Change. We are your biweekly comics information hub on what is new, and you need to keep your lazer focused eye on in the world of comics and nerd culture.

This week I had the joy of talking to Kevin Smith from Third Eye Comics in Mechanicsville about what the hottest titles are for this week and upcoming. We even took the time to talk about the recently released Captain Marvel teaser trailer as well. Kevin kept it short and sweet for us this week with his top four picks.

“What about supeheroes who have PTSD? I find out there is this ultra hush hush place called Sanctuary where they can get help.” said Smith. “It’s up to DC’s trinity to find out what has happened to this place.”

Of this 64-page special, subtitled “The Many Lives Of Doctor Who,” Smith said, “These are little mini vignette stories that are leading up to the new thirteenth doctor, and how they tie up to the Thirteenth Doctor’s adventures.”

This week I don’t have any specific comics to recommend, as the biggest one I was looking forward to is the Stranger Things release. However, I do have a trailer to recommend for you. One of the most anticipated trailers of the year, Captain Marvel, released both a teaser trailer and a poster this past week, and there are so may questions.

While naturally we won’t have any definitive answers to anything until the March 2019 release, both Smith and myself had plenty of questions and debate ourselves. The Nerdist also released a discussion video on their channel after the trailer dropped, and brought up an important question to fans of the Captain Marvel franchise.

Is the unnamed character Jude Law is playing the actual Captain Mar-Vell, the alien hero who originally carried the Captain Marvel title? Or is he Yon-Rogg, Captain Marvel’s nemesis (who was responsible for giving Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers her powers so she’d become Captain Marvel)? Disney has been pretty quiet about this since his casting.

“It’s been talked about that Mar-Vell is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed man, so yeah: Jude Law [is not that]. But not that the MCU always sticks tried and true to the comics, ” said Smith. “Even in that one clip in the trailer, he looks surprised, he has that ‘Oh crap’ face. That’s when Carol takes over, is when [Mar-Vell] dies.”

My personal favorite takeaways from the trailer, aside from finally seeing Carol Danvers in movement, are all of the 90s references. So many high school flashbacks smacked me in the face when I saw the Blockbuster building intact. Sigh.

What are your thoughts on comics this week? Have you watched the Captain Marvel trailer yet? What are your thoughts on it so far?

RVA Mag Comics X-Change is a bi-weekly comic column which dives into the latest and upcoming releases, along with insider info from local and regional comic book shop owners.

Welcome back, comics fans! We just introduced you to our new comics column a few weeks ago. If you missed it, you can check it out here. The next two weeks in comics are a bit of a doozy with plenty of new (and old) things to check out from the indie racks to the DC side of the stage as well, with even a surprise guest appearance from my forever favorite, “Stranger Things.” Luckily, we have Patrick Godfrey of long-standing favorite, Velocity Comics on West Broad Street to help guide us through the “Legends of the Hidden Temple” ropes course of new comics for you to devour.

“It’s a big-time travel gonzo, really explosively funny mini-series from Marvel. This issue focuses on a team of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ in the far future where Howard the Duck has the power of the Juggernaut,” said Godfrey.

“Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have created a trauma center where superheroes can go deal with traumatic events in their lives,” said Godfrey.

From me, I have three recommendations I have been antsy to share with you. An old favorite, “The Backstagers” by James Tynion IV, is finished with its eight-issue run, but is still worthy of a mention. After joining an all-boys school, Jory joins the stage crew only to discover that door backstage leads to different worlds (and all of the stagehands knew about it, naturally). Anyone who was involved in theater in high school, this is entirely your bag.

From old to brand new, the series “Crowded” by Christoper Sebela just released its first issue recently with a trade expected in March. Imagine a world where someone can request to have you killed through an app as easily as you can preorder your Starbucks latte from the bathroom. This already has the smell of classic all over it, with an art style that reads like a cyberpunk “Sailor Moon.”

“Stranger Things” fans, regardless of how much or how little they care about our beloved Barb, can all agree on one question that has to be asked. What exactly did Will do in the Upside Down while waiting on his search party? Dark Horse Comics heard our prayers, and oh we will receive, on Sept. 26 when issue #1 of a four-part run is released.

That about wraps it up for this week for Comics X-Change. What titles are you excited for?

RVA Mag Comics X-Change is a bi-weekly comic column which dives into the latest and upcoming releases, along with insider info from local and regional comic book shop owners.

RVA Mag Comics X-Change is a bi-weekly comic column which dives into the latest and upcoming releases, along with insider info from local and regional comic book shop owners.

Good afternoon comic fans! Between the Blu-Ray release of “Infinity War,” and Netflix’s announcement to acquire streaming rights for “Black Panther,” it’s been a pretty busy week. After looking at the list of titles coming out today and next week, it looks like it is only going to stay that way. Luckily, I had a little help to narrow down what to check out. This week, I spoke to Norman Krumenacker of Alpha Comics and Games located in Willow Lawn to help me break down what we need to keep our focus on for the next two weeks.

Recent Releases:

“Wakanda Forever: Avengers #1”

Cover By Terry Dodson

“It’s wrapping up a lot of what has been set in motion with the more recent ‘Black Panther’ comics,” said Krumenacker. “’Wakanda Forever’ has been a kind of feeler of sorts into other people’s stories.”

“The Punisher #1”

“He does the one thing that a lot of other people try to do, which is to be terrible and kill stuff,” said Krumenacker. “He’s been doing it longer, better, and more people love him so there’s a new number one for him. I’m sure it will be popular.”

“The world needs more David Bowie and we have much less David Bowie these days,” said Krumenacker. “It’s the story of how The Goblin King got his crown.”

“Exit Stage Left (Trade Paperback)”

“They’ve been dipping into a lot of Hannah-Barbara territory with crossover stories,” said Krumenacker. “Snagglepuss is gay and has a Broadway play where he tells his story, and there are the McCarthy hearings, and it’s a lot. It was difficult for a lot of people to get into in the individual issues because of how heavy it is.”

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Shattered Grid #1

“For the last several months, the Power Rangers’ several universes have been colliding and shattered,” said Krumenacker. “They are wrapping up, and I don’t want to say too much, but it will be interesting to see how it ends.”

“The Joker and Daffy Duck Special #1”

“The Venn diagram for me personally is we need existential terror, a strong female protagonist, and poop jokes,” said Krumenacker. “[With] Joker and Daffy Duck, there isn’t a strong female protagonist but the other two are there. The other crossovers have been successful.”

“I Hate Fairyland (Trade Paperback #4)”

“Gretchen and her horrible antics are finally coming to an end,” he said.

“Euthanauts #1”

“It just gives you enough to know there is another breadcrumb coming,” said Krumenacker. “It deals with self and identity and death and loss, and all of those things are in my wheelhouse.”

“The Life of Captain Marvel #2”

This new series premiered a few weeks ago and already it is off to a strong start, and as you can guess, follows the day to day of my beloved Carol Danvers. Often solo series featuring older characters tend to start off on a slow foot, but so far, this series is onto a good pace. The inclusion of a particular character has me curious to know how far this series, in particular, is going to weave itself into the current Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) timeline given the pace we are on to Avengers 4 in 2019.

“Betty and Veronica: Vixens #9”

I never thought that I would enter the phase in my life where I am consciously choosing to buy Archie comics, but here we are. Most of the series released after or in conjunction with the Riverdale series on The CW has been surprisingly well written, and above all else addicting (all phrases that should otherwise never be attached to anything to do with the Archie universe).

As our worldview continuously grows darker with every news broadcast, our thirst for dystopian media grows thicker. Luckily for us, local author Ian Bodkin’s has just released the third installment of his comic, The Savage Lyrics, to satiate this need.

Equal parts 1984, Under the Dome, and that one season of The Walking Dead with the Governor and his weird town thing, The Savage Lyrics #3 weaves together a post-apocalyptic story that Stephen King himself would be proud of. Set 100 years after a bomb is released, survivors come together to form a community called “The Town”. Forced to live under the totalitarian rule of a group called “The Ministry”, the series follows these events and of the titular character, “The Savage” and the quest to find out who he actually is.

Illustration By: Christian Leaf

With the murder of an entire family and a new sheriff, the people of the Town are paralyzed by fear as they suffer under the rule at the hands of The Ministry. This third installment comes in with well-known thief and often drunk, Sal Qureshi, cast out of the town by the Clerics, into the dead lands where he meets his new mysterious companion, The Savage. The two head west where the sun falls, the light dies, and the Town sits on the brink of its own destruction.

“The first two issues starts with a lot of mystery. Who is The Savage? What is his purpose?” Bodkin said. “In this one, it starts to become clear why he threatens the status quo of this post-apocalyptic society. But also he is arguing for something more important than survival. The need for art, the need for just living more than just living day to day, the need for experiencing life.”

Bodkin said that while his inspiration stems from a variety of places, he has always been a big fan of comic books and science fiction.

“I’ve always liked apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic writing,” Bodkin said. “Most of my work takes a lot of inspiration, too from The Gunslinger [by Stephen King]. I guess in some ways that whole idea of the whole way of how the story can continue over and over again and be told in different ways.”

Needless to say, the city of Richmond itself played an important part in inspiring parts of the series, as well. Despite the fact that the series, which is published through Sink/Swim Press, takes place in the southwest, Bodkin could have easily stuck in a random landmark or even a cameo from our beloved Wonton. But the writer found it more important to relay the work ethic and morals of the city and its people.

Illustration By: Christian Leaf

“It was always fascinating to me just sort of the do-it-yourself mentality of Richmond,” said Bodkin. “It doesn’t matter if we don’t have the big publishing houses or these sort of giant platforms, people just want to create for the sake of creating which I think is a really cool thing. But also the way the city celebrates artists and writers and really comes together for a lot of different things.”

It isn’t news that various media such as The Handmaid’s Tale, The Walking Dead, and other dystopian science fiction franchises have had a stark rise in popularity in the last couple years. Whenever society is shrouded in great times of discord humans just want a simple reminder that it will end peacefully, that we will genuinely survive and be okay.

Bodkin believes that The Savage Lyrics is not any different in that regard, despite the fact that we were in significantly more positive times when he started writing the series a few years ago.

“We always know that humanity has the capacity to lose control,” Bodkin said. “I think we want to know that even if we lose control beyond belief there is still hope out there. There is the fear of ‘Will we be able to handle this?’ and I think that is the question that is central to The Savage Lyrics. What is the essential thing to carry on?”

Illustration By: Bizhan Khodabandeh

The Savage Lyrics Issue 3 marks the halfway point of the six-issue schedule. With such a complex, interesting series full of twists and turns, it can only be imagined how fun it has been to craft the road that has led fans of the series to this point. Bodkin’s favorite part of working on the series has been just watching the comic unfold and working with both William Bennett (illustrator for issues 1 and 2) and new local illustrator, Christian D. Leaf, for this issue.

Leaf isn’t the only new addition to this series. Scott’s Addition brewery Three Notch’d RVA Collab House got involved for the release of the third comic to craft a beer around it. Last week, Bodkin and Sink/Swim Press collaborated with the brewery to create “Humanity’s End”, a crisp saison brewed with serrano and habanero peppers, and wow does the aftertaste really bite you hard in the ass. I am no craft brewing newbie, and I can chuck them back with the best of them like the classy broad I am, but with this brew’s spicy kick and intensity, I had to take it a little bit easier. I think it’s secretly called Humanity’s End because if you do just chuck it back you are going to feel like you are dying as you got punched in the throat. That being said, it is easily the best beer I have had in a long, long time. Just make sure you gently sip this one and really take your time so you don’t end up crying at the bar and making your bartender uncomfortable.

While creating the beer, Bodkin was hands-on with Three Notch’d to create something the series’ fans would definitely love.

“Getting to go in and make the beer there with Stefan [McFayden, Head Brewer] was really awesome,” Bodkin said. “He explained all of the parts of the process. We basically spent a whole day just brewing the beer together which was a lot of fun. I’m really excited for people to come out and try it.”

Even though the series is set far away from our beloved east coast city, it really is all about the people of the city that really make it happen. From the conceptualizing of the series itself to a collab with a local favorite brewery, the franchise gets it right in that Richmonders will always come out to help and support when and where they can. Even if we do somehow make it to some kind of World War III shenanigans, it’s safe to say that the River City will always find a way to thrive by sticking together.

The Savage Lyrics Issue 3 is available now and can be purchased on at Sink/Swim Pressor at Velocity Comics.

It’s been about two weeks since I saw Avengers: Infinity War. I saw it twice over the course of 48 hours, on the night it premiered and then again on the next night. Over 10 years of storytelling and 19 films have led up to the ultimate big bad of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the most pearl-clutching post-credits sequence in Marvel history, and it in no facet failed.

I could talk about the rainbow lens flares and how cool the Hulkbuster looked, and how Danai Gurira needs to be in literally everything forever, but who cares, honestly. Comic books and its culture have always been inherently political and reflected what was going on socially, and Infinity War did exactly that. As our favorite heroes have evolved over the course of the last 10 years, so has American politics, and in turn, the Avengers have evolved to reflect the current state of our country.

As far back as Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man when the beloved arachnid was owned by Sony the film became a reflection of post 9/11 America. As a random New Yorker proclaims from the bridge as Spider-Man tries desperately to hold a subway car together, “You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.”

The ball for this officially hit the ground harder and with a louder thud with 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, and 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. As Civil War drew the lines in the sand of a more clear-cut “us or them” philosophy (Hilary or Trump in 2016, anyone?), Ragnarok showed the Hunger Games-esque results on the world of a man in power who neither knew what he was doing nor cared. The only positive that came out of this was Jeff Goldblum doing what he does best and playing Jeff Goldblum.

With the climactic release of the most anticipated film of the year, Avengers: Infinity War is, of course, the best MCU film up to this point (Sorry, Ant-Man), and also brings some darkening parallels of the current state of American politics to the screen.

As our beloved Avengers have returned and seemingly let bygones be and partisan lines fade, we have finally met the ultimate Big-Bad that we have been built up for the last 10 years. Thanos is here, and he also brings in a dangerous question comic fans rarely want to entertain. Who really is the villain of this story?

Is Thanos the real villain of Infinity War? Or is it our beloved band of misfit toys? It admittedly feels weird and uncomfortable to utter the phrase, “Captain America is the Villain,” but it might not be too far off, especially as he is a war criminal. More on that in a moment.

Thanos opens the film for once, as opposed to popping up conveniently in a post-credits sequence to keep the suspense going. Thanos is ultimately wrecking everything in his path because he is on a journey to collect the six Infinity Stones so that he can control the Infinity Gauntlet and thus, snap his ginormous purple fingers and wipe out half of the universe. He has planned this because he sees the world as being overpopulated and not able to create enough resources per individuals.

While it is easy to write him off as the villain, plain and simple, when we write out and unpack his plan, he is actually weirdly relatable. His plan is very reminiscent of English Scholar Thomas Malthus, who proposed a similar plan in the late 18th century, although he didn’t have nearly as stylish of a glove. His plan, known as Malthusianism, involved equally morally questionable suggestions such as delayed marriage and abstinence.

You’re thinking to yourself, “Wow, that is really creepy and terrible,” and I totally agree with you. It is completely weird and terrible, however, if we moved the voice to someone else, say Sen. Marco Rubio or White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee, it sounds like something they said. As we head further and hear more and more about rollbacks and fights for various social justice issues, it suddenly isn’t that implausible to hear from a politician in the current arena.

As the film reintroduces all of our favorites back onto the screen such as Scarlet Witch (magically without her thick, Russian accent), Iron Man, Black Panther, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, one introduction, in particular, is interesting. As Scarlet Witch and Vision are fighting off Thanos’ children who are trying to steal the mind stone from Vision (which in and of itself turns everything else into a hot mess for our heroes), the cavalry makes their grand entrance.

I think there is still a ringing in my ears from the sheer volume of screaming that erupted from the theater when Captain America stepped out from the shadows; with Black Widow and Falcon in tow. While Captain America doesn’t have nearly as much screen time as the rest of the titular team, what screen time he does have is used to his advantage.

As Captain America, he has always represented the core of American values, which is made more interesting when you take a minute to step back and remember that he is a war criminal now thanks to the Sokovia Accords that were signed in Civil War. The physical embodiment of America is a fugitive.

So what does this mean exactly? This can be unpacked in a myriad of different ways which we don’t have time for, but I chose to look at it as where we are now. Every day, we wake up to different news that is pretty dark whether it be the fifth school shooting of the week, or another attempt to roll back rights on the LGBTQ community. Take your pick. And Captain America has always been a believer in the underdog, and a fighter of the people.

While everyone’s thoughts on protests are various levels of complication, one thing that can’t be ignored is the will of the American people to want to do what is right, to want to eradicate whatever evil is around us, hurting if not us our neighbors, our friends, or our family. We want to protect our communities with every breath we take, and that is something that has only grown stronger in the era of Cult 45. As Peter Parker said to Tony Stark, “I can’t be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man without a neighborhood.”

Despite being in some form of exile, Steve Rogers never stopped wanting to help and protect the people. He specifically found Wanda (Scarlet Witch) and Vision so that he could help them. He never ever gave up on Bucky despite the damage he induced while being brainwashed. He specifically reached out to T’Challa (Black Panther) and asked for help so that they could protect the world from Thanos and get help for Vision.

Infinity War was every last bit of fantastic from the writing, to the character development, to the comedic relief that Drax never fails to bring. But it also represented the good parts of humanity that come out in times of darkness, much like a diamond from under pressure. It’s easy to be left feeling bummed about half of the MCU being lost in the Soul Stone, (Fear not, friends. They’re still around, we just have to figure out how to get them out of there,) if you don’t read the comics.

Rest assured the still untitled Avengers 4 is going to bring us the happy ending in every realm that we wanted, especially now that Captain Marvel is on the case.